Page 34 of Facade

The first thing Clarke did when she entered her classroom was check her electronics. Fortunately, they were undamaged. She wrote an outline of topics on the board while she waited for her students to arrive.

Clarke enjoyed seeing the same students every day. They were developing a rapport. It was also nice having a small class. That allowed her to devote attention to each of them, and learn the best way to engage their interest.

The first class was Territorial History, with Evolution of Humanity in the afternoon. History went smoothly. Next, she was off to the library.

Russell was swamped, assisting students in search of study material, and assigning alcoves for group projects. While the constant flirting was awkward, Clarke found herself disappointed that they were barely able to speak to each other. He was a good conversationalist who always had something funny and interesting to say.

After the library, Clarke had a shift in the cafeteria. All the monitors helped out in the library and cafeteria, but the shifts were staggered with each of them working different hours. So, she didn’t get to see Jace, but wasn’t forced to put up with Ray or Mitch.

Clarke ate her own lunch as she kept an eye out for misbehavior. Typical of human nature, the students had their cliques and friend groups, not all of whom got along. Some were competitive with each other.

Overall, it was tamer than a high school lunch period. Primarily, monitors were always present to make sure the students weren’t using powers or magic without supervision. In a confined space, crowded with hundreds of people, that could be disastrous.

The rest of the day was uneventful. When Clarke returned to the dorm, she was pleased to see that several of the powered students offered to help with the feral cat project. Some volunteered their time, others wrote down supplies they were willing to donate. Those feral cats would be living in style soon.

Ten minutes after curfew, Clarke was walking down the basement stairs. It had been too long since she and Jace had been able to touch each other. The distance was taking a toll.

Opening the door to the tunnel, she jogged to the largest storage area between the caster and elemental dorms. Jace was waiting for her, and they met halfway. Clarke sighed with relief when his arms closed around her.

After a long moment of silently appreciating the closeness, she breathed, “Missed you.”

Jace grunted, and he squeezed her tighter. “Missed you more,” he grumbled.

“Russell noticed some things at the meeting that I want to talk to you about,” Clarke said. “They might not have anything to do with Dad, but it seemed worth mentioning.”

“From what you’ve said about other conversations you’ve had with Russell, he sounds very astute,” Jace commented.

He checked her knee, scowling ferociously at the bruises. Then he kissed the spot on her thigh with his mate mark. Unable to help herself, Clarke smiled widely. Jace was so damn sweet.

They sat down on a crate, holding hands with their wrists and knees touching. These were energy points on the body. Keeping contact at those points helped nurture the bond.

Jace always pressed one of his knees to hers under the table during staff meetings. But those weren’t frequent enough to make a significant difference.

Clarke reported Russell’s observations on the chief of maintenance, head groundskeeper, and Heath Halston.

“I noticed that about Heath, too, and agree that it’s curious. Since something about the tournament upset him, but Heath isn’t being very covert about it, I think we should focus on the ones who might be hiding stuff,” Jace said after thinking for a minute. “I’ll check into the maintenance crew and groundskeepers. Whatever is going on with them might not lead to Charlie, but every lead is worth checking out.”

“Yeah, that sounds like the best plan. The tournament is months away. We can always circle back to Halston later if need be. As far as the maintenance workers and groundskeeper, I don’t want to end up chasing shadows, but currently, we’re searching blind,” Clarke said. “Without a direction to look in, I’m not sure what else to do.”

“This is frustrating,” Jace said with sympathy. “But the way I see it, even if we find out that one of these guys is cheating on his wife, or something similarly unrelated to Charlie, it won’t be a waste of time. That’s one more person we can potentially cross off of the suspect list, and narrow down the field.”

“You’re right. I need to see this as progress,” Clarke said. “I’ll try to get another vision that will hopefully give us more to work with.”

They talked about their plans for the feral cats, and snuggled for a half hour before grudgingly heading back to their dorms. Jace wanted to be certain that Heath had removed the alert spell prior to spending longer periods of time together.

Heath

Most of the week went by in a blur. Jace’s strange behavior and evasive answers flew out of Heath’s mind when the reason for the staff meeting on Tuesday was revealed. He had suspected that whoever was responsible for students disappearing was using the tournaments as a hunting ground.

Every missing graduate had performed at a Regional Evolved Tournament. Each of them had excelled, achieving top marks, and had been offered highly sought-after positions by illustrious companies or sports teams.

Heath had been hoping the police would find the missing graduates before the next tournament. It would be difficult to protect students from an unseen threat. He could warn the staff, but Heath wouldn’t be traveling to Alabama Evolved with the caster entrants. Nor did he have friends among the staff at Alabama.

And now, the tournament would be here, at Clementine. Heath didn’t know what to do, or how he could possibly protect the students. He had no idea who might be behind this.

Bringing his concerns to the police and department heads of the college probably wouldn’t do any good. Whether they believed him or not, Heath didn’t have a shred of evidence to back up his suspicions.

The columns under each heading on his whiteboard were still frustratingly, mockingly, empty. There were no leads, not a single clue to investigate or present to authorities.